I’ve been going through a bit of a worry cycle. Health, the economy, jobs, life, oh my goodness, there’s nothing major but if you are like me, a person who worries a lot, then you know what it’s like when one of those cycles starts. Anyway, when Wisteria passed on the Zombie Chicken Award all I can say is that it did wonders for my mood. It made me laugh out loud and that is good therapy, well and a bit of book shopping too. heh.

So here’s a bit about this prestigious award:

“The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken – excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…”

Isn’t that great? I love it so thank you Wisteria for making me smile and now I pass on this award to some very amazing bloggers who I know would not let a zombie apocalypse get in the way of their blogging. They are:

• Jenclair from A Garden Carried in the Pocket. She practices tai-chi so the zombies better watch out.
• Melody from Melody’s Reading Corner. She is just too sweet and I’m sure she’d even charm the zombies.
• Tanabata from In Spring it is the Dawn. With her fantastic photography skills she’d capture the zombie apocalypse and would manage to make it look beautiful.
• Serena from Serena’s Savvy Verse & Wit. She’d start reading them some beautiful poetry and the zombie chickens would stop attacking and start celebrating National Poetry Month.
• Kailana from The Written World. She’d engage in a reading contest with the zombie chickens and we know who’d win that. She reads a lot.

Now about the book therapy I mentioned. During our bookstore outing this weekend I bought Zoetrope: All-Story The Latin American Issue. I know one of you guys recommended this to me and I couldn’t pass up on a Latin America issue. I’m looking forward to this and I promise to tell you more about it.

And, I bought Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle. I’ve been devouring this cozy mystery! While there are a few quibbles here and there which I tend to have with cozy mysteries in general, I’m loving this one because it features an amateur sleuth who is a bookbinder! It is just so much fun to read this book and it reminds me of when I was taking classes at the Dallas Craft Guild. There’s a mention of a couple of book binding techniques I’ve never heard of so you can imagine that I’m planning to research those and who knows maybe I’ll be challenged to try a new book structure.

So, I’m off to relax with a cup of a very yummy tea and my book. I think I’ll finish it tonight.

This time on our usual bookstore outing I was on a quest. My friend Isabel’s 9 for 09 Challenge was recently mentioned in Romantic Times Magazine and I wanted to see if I could find the magazine for her. Well, I found it but not the right issue (I was looking for March) but I decided to still check this one out.

Every once in a while I do read the magazine because aside from romance novel reviews they also review mysteries and I just noticed that they’ve also started reviewing graphic novels, teen reads and urban fantasy. Well, I think I need to add this magazine as a regular read then!

Danielle recently posted about soon-to-be released books she is looking forward to and after I read this magazine I thought I’d do the same. I found quite a few books that sound good to me, here they are:

• Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I read her first book Sharp Objects earlier this year and thought it was an well-written psychological thriller. This promises to be another gritty, intense thriller.
• House of Mystery: Room & Boredom by Matthew Sturges. The story focuses on five characters trapped in a supernatural bar, trying to solve the mystery of how and why they’re imprisoned there. Each one has a terrible past they’d like to forget, and with no books, newspapers or TV allowed in the House, they face an eternity of boredom. But stories become the new currency, and fortunately, the House attracts only the finest storytellers. Doesn’t that sound great?
• The Sacred Well by Antoinette May. Two women, two centuries apart but drawn to the mystical Chichen Itza. I got to visit Chichen Itza with this girl many years ago and we had a blast. I don’t think you can even climb up the castle anymore but when we went we even got to go inside. I wouldn’t mind revisiting this beautiful spot even if only via the pages of a book.
• Foreign Tongue by Vanina Marsot. An American woman leaves L.A. after breaking up with her boyfriend and goes to Paris and big surprise, she finds love. Maybe it’s not quite an original story but this could turn out to be a fun, romantic novel.
• A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell. This suspenseful first novel follows an undercover crime reporter in Berlin in 1931 as she searches for her brother’s killer, a trail that leads from the city’s dark underbelly to the top ranks of the rising Nazi party. You know I love Berlin so this is going on my TBR list.
• In the Shadow of Gotham by Stefanie Pintoff. I love historicals and this mystery features a New York detective who’s lost his fiancée in the General Slocum ferry disaster. Still reeling from the tragedy, Det. Ziele transferred to a police department north of New York, to escape the city and all the memories it conjured, but of course he’ll soon be pulled into solving the murder of a young woman.

So many good books to look forward to. What about you? What are you eagerly awaiting?